PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 29 



marine biology. The almost invisible and innumerable 

 forms of life universally distributed throughout the ocean, 

 taken with the finest tow-nets, as well as material dredged 

 from the ocean floor, and the occupants of previously 

 unknown regions, at a depth of from three to five miles, 

 where their own phosphoresence furnished the sole wierd 

 light, and plants and animals of many other kinds, were 

 taken home to British and foreign laboratories. 



Excellent work done by the United States is well 

 reported on in the volumes entitled " Three Cruises of 

 the SS. 'Blake,' in the Gulf of Mexico, in the Caribean 

 Sea, and along the Atlantic Coast of the United States, 

 from 1877 to 1880," by Alexander Agassiz. 



The many biological stations scattered about the coasts 

 of Europe and America are supplementing the valuable 

 work of the cruising expeditions, and afford the most 

 admirable means of studying the life history of hitherto 

 little known animals. Of these, the earliest equipped, 

 which has recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, 

 is the fine station at Naples, where, under the directorship 

 of Dr. Anton Dohrn, splendid biological work is being 

 done, and memoirs of the highest character executed. 



In our country four may be specially mentioned ; the 

 Plymouth Biological Station, under the directorship of 

 Prof. Ray Lankester; the Gatty Marine Laboratory of St. 

 Andrews, under Prof. M'Intosh ; that of Millport, in 

 the Island of Cumbrae, founded by that indefatigable 

 naturalist, the late Dr. David Robertson ; and the one 

 which more immediately interests us, that of Port Erin, 

 with Professor Herdman as director. All of these and 

 many others, as well as several fresh-water biological 

 stations, are annually proving their usefulness to students 

 of biology, by enabling them to study living animals under 

 natural conditions, for, as Professor Miall well said in the 



